


Beneath

by elizabethlovestatu



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Anya Lives, Charles is a bit of a jerk, Flower Power, Gen, M/M, NaNoWriMo 2015, X-men are crazy, stupid stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2017-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-28 09:51:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6324460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizabethlovestatu/pseuds/elizabethlovestatu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of the events of X-men: First Class from the perspective of the infamous Magneto's eldest daughter, Anya. In this retelling Anya Lehnserr survives the fire that was supposed to have killed her in the comic universe due to her manifestation of her mutant abilities, the ability to control flowers. Her mother still flees from her father leaving Anya in the sole care of her shocked father. She spends ages 5-12 with her father as he seeks revenge against the man who caused the death of his mother and what he believes to be the cause of his wife leaving him. With the addition of his daughter into the mix see how things might have happened for Magneto in this movie au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Vinnytsia

Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR

May 12, 1955

(5:00 pm) 

"Mama, the flowers are sad!" Anya shouted in a manor typical of a young girl. 

Magda looked at her daughter and just smiled, her daughter was playing pretend with the flowers. Anya had a vivid imagination when it came to the flowers she had planted earlier in the spring. Her daughter often just stared at the plants as if they were going to grow a meter in a matter of minutes. The plant seemed to respond to the girl's imagination by growing faster than was to be expected in the chilly Spring weather of the Ukraine. 

The purple mallow plant her daughter was so fascinated with, sat on the window seal of one of two windows in their small apartment. The kitchen window, in which Anya now sat and staring out of looking at her potted plants, allowed light from the sun to warm the third story apartment. More often than not when she was not finishing housework she found herself walking about the room to just keep warm. 

Her daughter was strange in that manner. She seemed to pay no mind to the cold and continued about her games as if not affected by the temperature. Really all children always seemed to not care about the weather when it came to play, they would continue about their activities as the temperature dropped 20 below zero. 

"Why?" Magda asked, playing along with whatever game her daughter wished to begin. "Do they want water?"

"They need it to properly do photosynthesis." Anya replied looking at her mother as if she should have known this information. "If they don't have water they cannot convert the hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide needed to produce ATP. And if they don't have water they'll end up shriveled." 

She just nodded and smiled at Anya, where her little girl had managed to pull that information from was a mystery to her and would remain one. For the mean time she needed to get started on dinner, potatoes were a simple meal to prepare but not without preparing the rosemary, garlic, and sage first. 

"Do you want to help me with dinner?" Magda asked. 

"Is it something sweet?" Anya asked looking away from the plants at the mention of dinner. "Oh I want that berry desert thingy Larisa's mother makes! Do you think we can make it mama?" 

Anya began to prattle on about how she knew the exact recipe for making the berry pie or cake. When asked what type of berries needed to be used for the recipe, Anya simply replied "The red and the purple ones." Very helpful in Magda's mental searching for a dessert with berries, she knew of several dishes, all of them involving berries she was certain she could not get in the Ukraine. 

If she were back home... No, going down that path would only lead her to shut down. The past was behind her, she had a happy future ahead of her, away from those desperate to erase her and her people from existence. She was in a safe place, no matter how frightful she became when her nightmares returned, she knew she and her daughter were safe. 

"Wash the potatoes for me." Magda instructed her daughter as she went to begin chopping the garlic. 

"No onions?" Anya asked, more pleaded than asked. 

"Yes, we need three whole onions." She remarked sarcastically watching as her daughter's face upturned in disgust at the thought of onions. "You know I am joking my little mouse." 

Anya went about washing the red potatoes as instructed by her mother. Anya often found herself washing the food rather than cooking it, she was five now, she could handle the knives just fine. Papa had said once that she would be a fine chef is she kept up with her mother so well in the kitchen. But for some reason he was opposed to the idea of letting her handle knives as well, even when she was trying to be a chef! 

"Do you remember where I placed the rosemary?" Magda asked after a few minutes of digging in the cabinets, she should have looked to see if she had the rosemary before prepping the other ingredients. "Verdammt." 

"What?" Her daughter asked innocently upon hearing a word she knew she wasn't supposed to say. 

"Nothing darling..." She sighed. "We're out of rosemary." 

"Oh does that mean we have to go out?" 

Magda shook her head quickly, "No, we're going to use thyme." 

"Can we go out later then?" Anya asked with a pouted look. 

"Perhaps when you remember what type of berries we need for the cake." She said and reached to ruffle her daughter's braided hair before Anya was able to dash off across the room to keep her mother from messing up her pretty braids. "Or if you're good perhaps we'll go down to the bakery tonight?" 

Anya immediately set about setting the table for dinner, smoothing out the table cloth, and going about preparing the drink glasses. She had to be the best she could if it meant a chance to go to the bakery. Normally she only got to go to the bakery on a special occasion, but today was a normal day, so a trip to the bakery was just more of an incentive to behave. 

"Are the flowers still sad?" Magda asked her daughter when the little girl began to look bored. 

She skipped over to the flowers, they didn't seem as sad as before, good. She hadn't even watered them and they were happier. Perhaps all she had to do was give them attention and they would be happy? Or maybe they didn't like her? How could they not like her? She was the one who watered them and was the one who had convinced mama to buy the potted plants. 

The trees want to warn you. The flowers whispered to her. 

"What do the trees want?" Anya whispered to the flowers to make sure her mother couldn't hear her talking to them. She couldn't talk to the trees, only to flowers, the trees must be ignoring her because she likes the flowers more. The flowers are much prettier and are probably much nicer than the trees. 

Someone wants revenge. And they will come tonight to fulfill it. They whispered. 

"What does that mean?" She asked looking back to her mother, her mother more focused on cutting the potatoes to notice her daughter talking to the mallows. 

Someone feels wronged by your papa and wants to punish him for what they feel your papa did to them. The mallow's voice seemed to fade with every word they spoke. 

"Papa hasn't done anything wrong though!" Anya said back to the flowers loud enough for her mother to hear and for her mother to laugh and say, "He had better not have."

"No!" She said in as serious of a tone as she could muster. "The trees say that someone wants revenge on papa so they are coming here!" 

Magda just shook her head, children had such wild and strange imaginations. First it was the flowers and now it was the trees, she had to laugh at her daughter's ability to create such wild stories. Now onto whatever it was that her husband did to have Anya create a scenario like this. 

"What did papa do now?" She asked keeping the smile on her face to encourage Anya to continue. 

"I don't know," Anya said with a huff. "The trees won't say. They want re-avenge on him for something." 

A man is coming. He wants... The mallows try in vain to contact the little girl once more. They're abilities in communicating with the little girl would only stretch to what the little girl could power herself through. 

"A man is coming." Anya repeated. 

"A man is coming?" Magda asked, placing the potatoes in the oven to bake. "What man?" 

Her mother looked out the window, not towards the flowers, to see the owner of the apartment complex heading towards the apartment building. Magda was suddenly worried about missing a rent payment than what her daughter was imagining. She had given him the money already this month, what was she worrying about? He was here for someone else's rent money, not her's. 

"That's Mr. Osin, Anya." She patted her daughter on the head for her silliness. "He isn't here to talk to us." 

Magda went back to her cooking while leaving Anya to continue to stare out the window trying to figure out which man from the crowd that was headed to get revenge for something. When fifteen minutes had passed she gave up looking out the window to focus back on the mallows. Perhaps they were feeling well enough to talk again. 

"Can you talk?" She whispered to the plant.

The plants remained silent. Anya just huffed and crossed her arms looking back towards her mother as she prepped the last of dinner before the potatoes were finished. Her mother focused back towards Anya, watching as her daughter looked flustered about the plants on the window seal. 

Get out while you can. The man is here. The flowers managed once again. 

"The man is here." Anya said looking out the window in search of a mean looking man. 

Instead all she saw were the typical men and women of the neighborhood and shops. Her mother looked out the window with her daughter, curious as to who this "man" was. The sun was still shining high in the sky despite it being nearly 7 in the evening. 

"Look!" Magda said holding onto her daughter as she pointed down below to the man dressed in the typical Soviet university style. "Papa's home." 

Anya smiled, forgetting about the flower's warnings and running off to the kitchen sink to wash her hands and prepare for dinner. The flowers were flowers, what could they know about strange men coming to her home and doing mean stuff to it. Besides, what had her papa done to anger anyone? He always said he never talks to anyone but his teachers and boss when he's out. He couldn't have made one of them mad could he? 

Her mother took the potatoes out of the oven shortly before papa got upstairs and unlocked the locks on the door. Anya ran straight for her papa, he had been gone since early this morning cause some lady in the building needed his help with her lights. He had worked as an electrical man before they had moved to Vinnytsia, she couldn't remember living anywhere but Vinnytsia, mama said she was too young when they moved to have remembered anything. 

"Papa!" Anya threw her arms around his neck as he knelt down to hug her back. 

After he had set his bags down after hugging Anya for what Anya felt was a sufficient amount of time to be held, her papa walked over to her mama and kissed her cheek. He whispered something to her mother that she could not hear, probably something about how one of his professor's had told him how smart he was or maybe that he had gotten Anya a present? 

Anya smiled at the thought, the bakery and a present? What had she done so good to get gifts? Just imagining it she ran over to her parents and wrapped her arms around her mama's legs as papa still held onto her mother. She wasn't surprised when her papa leaned down and picked Anya up to hear whatever it was that her parents were talking about in whispers. 

"I have good news for the both of you." Papa said with a toothy, shark-like grin. "Mr. Osin has decided to let us move into a bigger apartment." 

"Can we even afford that?" Magda asked before she could stop her worry from overpowering the sudden joy she felt at no longer having her daughter sleep in a closet. "Mein Gott we can barely afford this Erik, how can we afford something bigger?" 

"Same rent." He managed quickly before his wife could interrupt once more. "All we have to do is sign and pack up our things." 

Anya didn't see anything wrong with their apartment now, maybe it was a bit small, but she liked it. She had her own tiny room and she had her flowers in the window seal. She had lived here since she was too young to remember and now they were just going to pack up and move? Oh well, it was an adventure, perhaps she could get her own window to grow flowers? 

She'd get lilies, her mother loved the lilies, she always talked of how she would love to grow them but they were too hard to grow. Anya knew she could grow them, she had kept the mallows healthy all by herself and she was sure the lilies weren't that hard to care for anyway, it wasn't like her mother wanted something weird and smelly like orchids. 

"When do we need to be packed?" Her mama asked before Anya could manage a word about her flowers. 

Her papa set her down complaining that his back was hurting. She didn't pay much mind to it and just stayed near her parents and held onto her mama's outstretched hand.

"We have to meet with Mr. Osin downstairs to discuss details." Her papa explained. "Which is why Anya is going to stay here while we go downstairs and negotiate." 

"We have to negotiate?" Her mama retorted. "I thought this was a done deal." 

"And it will be." He quickly kissed her cheek before she could begin lecturing him on about assuming things before they were actually done. "I'll just have to use my grand negotiating skills to get him to reduce the price." 

"Your negotiating skills?" Her mama suddenly giggled. "You paid three rubles for a table worth one." 

"Yes, and that is why I've been working on other methods of persuasion." 

"I don't believe commenting on how beautiful his eyes are will work my dear."

"At least I know it works on someone." 

Her mama began to laugh loudly, prompting her to let go of Anya's hand and covered her mouth to prevent the snorts that she would soon emit from leaving her mouth. Anya walked away as her parents began to laugh at each other without clueing their daughter into whatever it was they were laughing about. Apartments weren't funny to her, adults were stranger than she thought if they thought talking about apartments was funny. 

Anya took her seat at the table in hopes her mama would get the clue that she was hunger and wanted to eat. The apartment could wait, she wanted to eat her potatoes and look at her papa's plant book. Well, it really wasn't a plant book, it was more of a biology book that had pretty pictures of several dozen species of flowers in it. 

"Mr. Osin wants us down now to discuss our terms." Erik said looking from his wife to his daughter. "We should be done in under ten minutes if all goes well." 

Magda simply gave him a look that showed her disbelief. She knew better than to assume it would be a quick deal, Mr. Osin would have them down to their last kopeks with this new apartment. She could already see the summer meals of potatoes and whatever fruits she managed to collect at the market on her dinner plate. 

At least with the smaller apartment they could afford meats and cheeses, perhaps it would be worth living on potatoes if it gave Anya her own bedroom. Besides, it was all only temporary. Once he had completed his degree in Engineering, perhaps they could move to Moscow and get a two-bedroom apartment with chicken or beef on the dinner plate every night. Patience. 

"I just finished supper though." She sighed, she was not about to let her work go to waste. "And you know how much Anya despises Mr. Osin." 

"Which is why we will go downstairs right now, and leave Anya locked in to watch dinner." He glossed over her fears. 

Magda huffed and crossed her arms. "Fine, let's get this over with." 

Anya looked back to her parents from her seat at the table. Her mama had her arms crossed in a fashion that meant papa must have done something she thought was stupid. Whenever he did something stupid typically her mother would make him peal the potatoes or do the laundry. He was going to be doing the laundry for the next week since they were eating potatoes now. 

Her mama motioned to Anya to come over and hug her. She didn't know why she wanted to get hugged, they were going to be eating dinner. Did she do something wrong? She couldn't have! She had done everything they told her to do and now she wasn't going to get to go to the bakery because of whatever it was that she had done. 

She walked towards her mother cautiously, she was not about to miss her opportunity to go to the bakery because she had done something she wasn't supposed to. Anya had herself prepped to beg her mama for forgiveness when instead she was simply held by her mother tightly for a brief moment before her mother pulled back and stood to leave with her father. 

"We're going to go talk to Mr. Osin." Her mama said addressing the confused expression that appeared across her daughter's face at the sight of her parents heading towards the door. "We should be back soon." 

"But what about dinner?" Anya asked pointing to the baked potatoes resting on the stove. 

"We'll be back in a matter of minutes Anya," Her papa reassured her. "We're going to lock you in Anya, if anyone knocks not our secret knock do not open the door." 

"Okay." Anya said looking at her parents once more as they walked out the door to discuss something with Mr. Osin. "Love you." 

"We love you as well." Her mama said with a quick wave before shutting the door. 

She heard the locks click into their locked position before she could not longer hear her parent's footsteps walking the hallways of the building. Hopefully they would be back before the food got cold. She didn't like eating cold potatoes, and she definitely didn't want them to get back too late where the bakery closed. She wanted a cookie, or maybe a small cake, or a pie. 

As the minutes ticked on and Anya grew impatient as her parents seemingly took their time talking to the boring Mr. Osin, Anya began to smell something that did not smell like potatoes. It smelled horrible. She was tempted to open the door and see if someone had burnt something, but she remembered well her papa's warning to not leave the apartment for any reason when they were not there. 

She would just have to deal with that horrible smell for a little bit longer. Whatever it was. 

Anya began to feel very hot after a few minutes of smelling the awful smell. She felt like she was outside in the hot afternoon sun after having ran around the block. She got up from her seat at the kitchen table and made her way over to the window with her flowers on it. Her flowers remained silent as she approached them. 

When she approached the window the horrible smell seemed to worsen, looking out the window she saw a group of dozens of people watching in horror at the sight before them. Anya looked down from the window to see the cause of the horrible smell, a fire. 

A fire had taken hold of their apartment building and she was upstairs. The people down below weren't calling for help though, they did not try to run off to find a fire marshal or someone with a hose. No, they continued to stare at the building as if it were something to marvel at for entertainment. 

He has succeeded. The flowers broke their silence with a shocked Anya turning to focus her attention upon them once more. He has had his revenge. They know now what he is, a monster. They know. 

"What do they know?" Anya asked as she began to feel the heat overwhelm her. "Who is a monster? Get me out of here!" 

Anya began to cry and shout out the window for her parents. She begged her papa or her mama to save her from the fire. 

"Papa!" She screamed. "Mama! Help! I'm burning! Help!" 

The heat just became so much for her that she couldn't stand on her own anymore. She just felt so tired, like she wanted to go to sleep. She was so hot, but she wanted to sleep so bad. She wanted her mama, she wanted her papa, she wanted to get out. 

"Help!" She managed one last time before she felt herself fall into a restless sleep. 

The little girl was saved, not by her mama or her papa, but by the flowers and trees that had been calling to her. They sacrificed themselves to save the girl that would have been the first domino since Auschwitz to collapse and lead to the fall of a man that would later be known as Magneto. Sacrificing themselves to save the lives of many, and all they knew was they had to protect the queen of the flowers. 

When the little girl awoke hours later after lying on the ground protected by the charred remains of what had been her mallows and the branches of a hornbeam tree. The cold air of the Ukrainian spring evening suddenly hit her face as she felt someone pick her up. She didn't bother opening her eyes as the horrible smell in the air made her fear the sight that would be there if she dared to open them. 

"We need to bury her!" Her papa's voice sounded off from above her, her papa was carrying her. "Magda please!" 

"What have you done?" Her mama cried. "You... You killed them! You killed them all! What are you?" 

Her mama continued to cry, Anya managed to pry her eyes open in time to see her mother running away from them, she just kept running into the darkened streets of Vinnytsia. Anya didn't focus on what her mother had said, or perhaps she too would have ran off to find her mother, all she heard was "What are you?" and her mother's cries 

She looked up at her papa to find him staring off in the direction her mother had ran off to, his cheeks were wet with tears as she reached up to touch him. She did her best to wipe the tears away like he did when she was in pain. The noise he made when she touched him, a sound of fright and pure grief, scared Anya as she quickly pulled her hand back. 

Her papa quickly pulled her to him in a tight embrace, not giving her much room to breath, her lungs still recovering from inhaling all the smoke. His crying grew louder as Anya began to cough, he pulled her back to allow her room to breath. He looked at her as if she had been brought back from the dead. The plants had said that she had just fallen asleep, she felt like she had fallen asleep. 

He pulled her out of the embrace and placed her on her feet as he sat down on the ground to begin the process of explaining what needed to be explained. She felt dizzy standing on her feet and leaned back into her papa for support. He held her with a strong grip, keeping her from seeing the destruction that surrounded her. 

"Anya," He said with a shaky voice. "We... We need to leave here." 

Leave? This was their home! Why would they leave? Oh the fire, that was why they had to leave... but couldn't they just find mama and find a new place to live in the city? 

"Mama?" She muttered looking in the direction her mother had ran off in. "We have to find Mama." 

"You're mother does not wish to be found." Her papa said with that same look in his eye he got when discussing that strange man that worked in the restaurant down the road. "We must move on without her." 

"But." Anya's eyes began to water, she wanted her mama with her. Why couldn't they just follow where she had gone and find her? 

"No, Anya." He said firmly. "We are on our own now. You're mother does not want us anymore." 

She began to cry, her mama didn't want her anymore? How could she? She just wanted to hug her mama once more. Why had she left? Why had she run off from them? What if it was something she had done? She hadn't done anything to warrant her mama leaving had she? What if her mama had started the fire to kill her? No, her mama didn't do that. Her mama loved her... but why had she left her? 

Anya said nothing as her papa picked her up once more, this time around her had no intention of letting him put her down. He was not going to leave her. She would make sure of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy!

Geneva, Switzerland

February 12, 1962

(Noon) 

"I have no intentions of leaving this room." Anya said crossing her arms as she sat down once more on the hotel bed. "There is absolutely nothing to do here!" 

She flopped onto her back dramatically from her seated position, her hair flying into her face as she did so. Her hair was getting too long, she hated having it to her shoulders, it was too much work to deal with at longer lengths. Braiding hair was fun, but when you had to do it every day it would about drive you crazy. Being a girl sucked sometimes. 

Her father just let out a chuckle at her antics. He had somewhere interesting to go, wherever it was he was not letting her know, but she at least knew it was interesting. As it was with every other place they traveled to she was either stuck in a hotel room reading or listening to the radio, or by chance they actually went somewhere she could do something, like go outside and have an adventure or something. 

They had been doing this for five years now, traveling across Europe on what her papa called "business" but Anya knew better than to assume their travel actually had anything to do with business. If it were actual business they would have some form of a home to go back to, instead of hotel rooms from Moscow to Dublin lined up for them to stay in. 

Anya was smart enough not to ask her father what exactly it was that they were doing, as she knew he would either lie to her or brush her off. Whatever it was it involved learning everything from how to speak French to learning to break someone's arm. She found the violence aspect of the learning her papa required to be appalling but her papa insisted it was for the best, and with his insistence she did as he said. 

She preferred to focus on her studies of the humanities and botany. At one point she had nearly half a dozen textbooks on the subject of botany before they had to sell them for food money. Her avid interest in flowers was encouraged by her father, though she was certain it was more of a means to distract her from his adventures. 

The one time she had actually accompanied him on one of his "business" excursions, and not stayed in the hotel room, they had met a Norwegian man that held ties to something of Papa's interest. It had been a typical French bistro, Anya had worn her pretty old green velvet dress and black Mary Janes', her papa had put on a suit that he had somehow come across in the same place he had gotten her green dress. 

The Norwegian man had sat in a darkened corner of the bistro, a glass of red wine in his right hand, and a Browning Hi-Power 9mm in his left. She remembered well how her papa had laughed at the man before taking a seat in front of him. Anya had just stood staring at the man. Her papa had instructed her to stay near him and she was certainly not going to stray from his side with that man's gun aimed at her chest. 

"You're armed?" Her papa had looked at the man as if there was nothing to fear. 

"Have to be in all this madness." The man said back, a grin appearing on his face. He'd put his gun back in the holster he wore at his side. "Not that I would have anything to do with that." 

The man and her papa had conversed as if they were old friends throughout the meal. Anya still keeping herself in a position to run if the man suddenly became unfriendly. The meal they were served was eaten without a word from either adult, the chatter of the bistro in the back ground diverting Anya's attention for a just a moment, but that moment was all it took for the man to draw his semi and aim at the back of Anya's head. 

"Reizendes kleines Mädchen. Schade, sie ist eine dreckige Jude." The man had said. "Lovely, little girl. Too bad she's a filthy Jew." 

Anya's eyes widened as far as they could manage at hearing what the man had to say. He was a Nazi, what was her papa doing talking to a Nazi? Why had he not turned him into the French police? The stress of the situation made it all the more difficult for her to not listen to the roses that sat at each table, as they tried to warn her of the doom that could soon follow. 

"Sie würde eine feine Preis sein." He said with Anya nearly gagging as she called out to the roses for help. "She would make a fine prize." 

Her papa remained calm and stoic as he looked from Anya to the Norwegian, she was suddenly overwhelmed as all the roses and other flowers of the room came to her defense, wrapping the girl around with their stems and petals. She was blocked from seeing what happened next, all she could was hear what her papa and the man said. 

"Sie ist ein Freak!" The man said loudly cocking the gun before taking the shot. "She's a freak!" 

The other patrons of the bistro were immediately met with the sound of gun fire, but instead of the little girl covered in flowers lying in a puddle of her own blood on the floor, they turned to see the Norwegian man holding the gun with a clear shot through his heart. Anya and her flowers were carried off by her father with a tip of the hat to the patrons of the bistro. 

"Merci pour le bon repas." Her papa had said before they had disappeared into the night. "Thank you for the meal." 

That had occurred nearly four years ago, she had remembered going back to the hotel room that evening with the flowers suddenly falling to the floor and her papa doing the best to explain why they had to leave the country as quickly as possible. He had not bothered to explain to her why he had met with that man, or how the Norwegian man had fired off a bullet aimed at her head and instead ended with a bullet in his heart. 

She knew her abilities with flowers was inherited from her father, simple genetics. The evidence she had gathered from her papa's abilities with moving and transforming metal that she had inherited a trait that gave her, for lack of a better word super powers. Whatever this sorcery was that had given them these abilities was likely some sort of genetic mutation that had given them these abilities, all that was left to wonder was if there were others like them? 

Imagine meeting another girl that could make flowers do what she wanted them to do. They could see who could grow the flower's the fastest, which ones were best suited for the environment, and work to create new species. Anya could spend hours on end fantasizing about meeting another girl with flower manipulation abilities and it did her well considering she was about to be left alone for a few hours. 

"Switzerland can be very entertaining with the right attitude." Her papa said putting on his jacket. "And you Mäuschen, do not have the right attitude." 

She rolled her eyes and rolled herself off the bed, making an oof! sound as she miscalculated her landing and landed on flat on her behind. She stood up quickly before her papa could see her and laugh at her. He'd laughed at her when she had fallen walking up the stairs imagine what'd he do if he saw her lying on the floor. 

"I'll call you when I get one." Anya said running up and hugging him before he could pick up the heavy briefcase. 

She was the one who had to carry in that briefcase, it felt like a dozen bricks were resting inside, and her papa picked it up as if it were nothing to him. At the time she thought when she had to carry it up six-stories that he was just testing her strength, and now all she could think about is how he could have easily carried it up himself without having her suffer. 

"Please do," He said kissing her forehead before reaching down to take the heavy briefcase. "And perhaps we'll get a pastry later?" 

A smile quickly appeared on Anya's face. "I'll be good! I promise!" 

She was met with a chuckle from her father before he left with a nod of the head. And just like that she was left alone for the few hours. She wondered what she could do when suddenly she remembered something... this place has a tv! 

Somewhere between watching Fred Flintstone fall asleep on roller-skates and an ad for English-language instruction Anya had fallen asleep. She was awoken by the sound of the hotel room door slamming shut. The tv was still on and now was playing the evening news, the light from the outside was nothing more than street lights, how long she had been asleep she didn't know. And how she had actually managed to sleep after sleeping nearly ten hours the previous night, was a mystery to her. 

Her papa shut the door and locked it before making any sort of acknowledgement towards her. He smiled at her at least, setting down the brief case on the glass coffee table of the foyer, he came over to sit down on the bed next to her. Anya could only assume by the smile on his face that he had succeeded in whatever it was that he wished to gain, hopefully without causing anyone harm. 

She knew very well what her papa was capable, murder was just a means to an end for him, whatever end it was, Anya could never be sure. She knew he suffered from what the Nazi's had inflicted upon most of Europe during the war, but he seemed more hellbent than any other citizen of the Third Reich's regime. It was probably for the best that Anya never learned the full extent of what her papa was doing, she could end up in trouble. 

"When did you become interested in Swiss politics?" Her papa teased her looking at the tv's display of an overly dressed man speaking in German. "I'm proud of you for staying up-to-date with world affairs, when I can hardly be bothered to know the weather report." 

That was a lie, he always watched the news. When they had no access to the tv they had access to various newspapers in a dozen different languages. 

"The Americans have placed an embargo on Cuba." Anya said looking back at the tv. "They've also made it illegal to import or export anything to and from Cuba." 

"They have this arrogant belief that they can fix everything wrong in the world." Her papa said. "One of these days they'll wind up in a position that can only end in the end of the world." 

"I doubt it." Anya argued. "The US and the USSR are too chicken to do anything nuclear. One makes a move next thing you know the world ends and I don't think either of them want that to happen. I think this whole thing is just to keep the citizens under control through fear." 

"I think you have been listening to me too much." He chuckled as he got up from the bed to turn off the tv. "Not that I have ever been wrong about anything." 

"Sure you haven't." She said in her best overly serious voice. 

"Since I am always right, I say we go out and enjoy dinner at the cafe down the street." He suggested. 

Anya didn't bother to answer him and went over to her suitcase to pull out one of her nicer dresses. She practically ran to the hotel bathroom to put it on, and to make sure she braided her hair correctly. More often than not she ended up with a crooked French braid when she did her hair, her papa could braid her hair fairly well, but when he did it it took forever. And Anya was not nearly as patient as she came across. 

With her red dress now buttoned up properly and her hair braided she ran back into the room to go look for her socks and shoes. Her papa had put on his black leather coat once again and pulled her own tan windbreaker off the coat rack that hung in the small closet the hotel had provided. She buckled the buckles on her shoes with little time at all, racing over to her papa to get her coat on. She wanted a chocolate pastry and she really wanted it now, too bad she'd have to eat something else first. 

Her papa locked the door with just a wave of his hand as the two made their way down the hotel hallways towards the stairs. The place had an elevator, but Anya's fear of elevators always ran over her desire to get somewhere fast. Elevators were just big metal boxes held up by a rope that could easily snap, sending the riders inside down to their doom. 

Walking out into the streets of the Genevan evening they were met with the activity of many people and a few cars honking their horns as the people made their way about the roads. Anya often wondered what it would be like to have a car to just drive around, she'd ridden in one of course, but she wanted to know what it felt like to just own one and drive it casually. She'd probably get fat because she'd go drive to the bakery every other day with the car. 

Holding tight to her papa's hand they crossed the semi-clear street. The cars had seemingly disappeared for that moment in time, but the people had doubled in that time, all of them crossing the street trying to get home to dinner. They probably were rushing home to see their spouses and children, their wives already having dinner on the table as the children did the homework they had been assigned at school. 

She wished she had a chance to experience what normal girls got to. She had, but it was only for a brief period of time. She wished she could remember more of what her time with both of her parents was like, she had been too young to properly develop the memories that would treat her to nostalgia. Anya remembered the fire well enough, she remembered her abilities manifesting to save her, remembered the way she struggled for air after her papa had discovered her amongst the ruble, and how she had learned her mother had abandoned them after the fire. 

Her papa had stated that her mother feared what they were capable of and ran for safety. She had never asked if he had tried to find her, during the months of recovery from inhaling so much smoke, she had just assumed he had. Wherever her mother was, she just hoped she still remembered and loved her. 

"Should we try the fondue tonight?" Her papa asked as their feet met the cement of the sidewalk. 

"Yes!" Anya said her thoughts snapped back to reality with the mention of the food. "I want a chocolate croissant as well." 

The crowd of people surrounding them seemed to disperse as they got closer to the cafe. The small French-styled building was a lit with candles and conversation from what Anya could hear from but so far away. It was a beautiful building, like those that she had seen in Paris, except without the snobby French looking down upon her for whatever reason they had. The people that were eating at the cafe tonight though seemed to be friendly, well maybe friendly. 

Some customers sat outside the cafe, even though it was nearly 4 degrees, sipping their teas or coffees as if the cold were nothing to them. As they got closer she realized most of them were speaking what she assumed to be a Northern European language, they were used to the cold, they probably slept outside and were still warm. 

Papa led her into the cafe diverting her staring rather rudely at the Swedish costumers. They were sat down at a two seated table on the far-left side of the cafe and left with a menu written in six languages. Anya quickly opened it and turned it to the desserts menu, her papa noticed and just chuckled at her and reminded her that she had to eat something besides sweets for dinner. 

Another waitress met them a few minutes later, her uniform hardly modest as her breasts were nearly on full display to the customers of the cafe. She seemed nice enough though, very friendly when she asked them what they wanted to drink. 

"I'll have a cappuccino." Her papa said. "And she'll have a hot chocolate." 

"No whip cream!" Anya quickly interjected, rather rudely as well. "Sorry." 

The waitress hardly seemed fazed with her behavior and just smiled politely before heading back behind the counter to start working on the beverages. 

"How much longer are we going to stay here?" Anya asked quietly doing her best to avoid any sort of lecture of not drawing attention to herself. 

"I wasn't planning on telling you until we get back to the hotel," Her papa said looking about the cafe casually, obviously keeping his eye out for anyone with an alterer motive. "Though I suppose I can tell you now since you are so curious. My associate has informed me that I will need to travel to Argentina to meet with a client about a deal." 

"Argentina?" Anya said. 

Argentina, they had never left Europe before. They would admit to crossing multiple borders throughout Europe, the Eastern Bloc being one of the more challenging ones, but never outside. Europe was her home, she could only hope that they would not be gone for too long. The only thing she really knew about Argentina was that it was where the tango originated and where they had a beautiful theatre like that of the ones she had seen in Italy. 

Her Spanish wasn't too good either. How could she even begin to think of blending in with the locals when her accent alone would give her away in a minute, she'd just have to play the role of the tourist is she wished to blend in. Besides the language difference, she had no idea how things were in Argentina, perhaps they wore hats backwards there. That was ridiculous but perhaps it is true, Americans would do it she was sure. 

What type of business could her father have with anyone in Argentina anyway? Were they related to what he was looking for now? Probably, but why risk leaving Europe to fly to a country they could easily end up stuck in for a few months. She could only hope that they were in and out of the country within a week. Maybe after whatever business her father had to take care of in Argentina was done they could go to Italy for a while and just rest? That would be lovely. 

"Here is your cappuccino," The waitress said, breaking Anya from her thoughts. "And here is your hot chocolate." 

The waitress smiled at Anya as she quickly took her first sip of the hot drink. Anya looked back to the waitress who had moved her eyes from the twelve year old to her father. The waitress obviously held an interest in him, perhaps he was dressed too nice and the woman thought flirting with a rich man would get her a nice tip? Maybe, either that or she was just nice. 

"And what can I get for you?" The waitress asked. 

"We'll be sharing the fondue special." Her papa said with a grin appearing on his face at the waitress's blush. 

"Ew." Anya said as soon as the waitress had gone back towards the kitchen. 

Anya went to take another sip of her hot chocolate while her papa tried to explain that it was important to be friendly with the wait staff of restaurants. She just rolled her eyes and went about looking at the other customers of the cafe. Most of them seemed to be preoccupied either reading a book or talking with the person or people they had come in with. 

"What is in Argentina?" Anya asked with a sudden amount of bravery flooding through her. 

"Some people that can help me finish my quest." Her papa said in the most vague manner he could, probably just to frustrate her. "If all goes well, we will be able to return here by July." 

"Are you ever going to tell me what your quest is?" She asked looking back to him with a sympathetic look crossing her face. "Or am I just always going to be your little pet that follows you around?" 

The smile that appeared on his face was unexpected, making Anya frown believing she was not being taken seriously. She was going to have to say a few unkind words to him back in the hotel room. It wasn't nice to talk bad to your parent in public and Anya was going to go at it when they got back. Of course she did not understand what he had meant by the smile, as any 12 year old girl would misunderstand. 

"I will tell you when you are old enough to properly defend yourself." He promised her when she looked back towards him. "Until then, you will continue to be my 'pet'." 

Anya crossed her arms, she understood why she couldn't be told, but she wanted to know now. She was young but she wasn't stupid. She knew how to use a gun, she knew how to hold a knife, why couldn't he just tell her what he was doing? And why hadn't he been doing this when her mother had been with them? Or had he and they had not known? She couldn't remember. 

Whatever it or who was that had them chasing leads across Europe, and now to Argentina, she knew it was something that was worthy of her papa's attention. And she knew once he had his attention on something getting done, he fulfilled it. 

They ate their fondue and later a chocolate croissant as Anya had wanted in relative silence, as they're attention fell to the thoughts that would lead them to Argentina. In the end, they booked a flight for the day after tomorrow to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Anya could only hope that when they got there that whatever it was that their father was searching for would be found and resolved when there.


	3. Chapter 2

En Route to Buenos Aires, Argentina

February 20, 1962 

(8:00 am) 

"Papa," Anya mumbled awakening from the nearly eight hour nap she had taken as soon as they had boarded the Air France Caravelle plane. "I don't feel so good." 

The smell of the air-tight cabin space was horrid enough when she had come aboard the flight, now with the added cigarette smoke and who knows what else floating in the air, Anya was sure she was going to die. Smells alone were enough to often set off her abilities, if she smelled smoke for instance, flowers would soon surround her, even if she were in no danger. The flowers just came to her when she was in distress. 

Her papa held the back of his hand up to her forehead, checking to see if she was over heated. He found she was fine but was two shades paler than normal. She typically had an olive-tone to her skin, now she looked something like a ghost. Anya just looked up pathetically at him in hopes that he could somehow make her ailment go away. She seemed to grow even paler as she tried to straighten herself in her seat. 

Anya felt her stomach constrict, she was going to be sick, but she felt that she was too weak to even move. She just wanted to lie down and hope the smell disappeared, that and the plane stopped doing corkscrews. Her experience with flying was one flight she and her father had to take from a remote village in Finland to Denmark, it had been an easy flight, there was no one there but the pilot and her papa. Now she was up in the air with so many other people and a pilot that could not pilot a plane. 

Seemingly sensing her sudden nausea her papa quickly went about finding a paper bag for her to get sick in if she did get sick. He rubbed her back while telling her it was all right and that they would be landing soon. He was lying, they had another two hours at least before they touched down. She was sure she couldn't make it another two hours. 

Dry heaving gave way to actual sickness, the burning sensation in her throat gave way to a strange sense of relief to Anya. She felt horrible to say the least, but not nearly as bad as she had been before getting sick. Her papa had a flight attendant get her a glass of water and a fresh bag, Anya hardly paid any mind to the girl, she was concerned with not making a mess of herself any further. 

Taking the water glass from the flight attendants hands, her papa pulled back her hair and allowed her to sip on the cool liquid. It burned her throat at first as she tried her best not to begin coughing at the sensation. 

She leaned back into her seat as he took the glass away from her. She felt better, not much better, but better in a sense she was sure she could hold off on dying until after they had landed. Her papa continued to stroke her hair, reminding her that he was there and that he would be prepared to get another bag if he had to. 

When he worried, well when he did worry that is, he always gripped tight to something within his grasp. His current task was on the ballpoint pen the airline attendants had given them earlier in the flight. The pen disassembled itself before her eyes and quickly came back together, the metal components of it anyway. 

He would often tell her he could really only use his abilities when he was upset or angry. It made sense to her as the flowers usually only spoke to her when she was in danger or in a stressful situation. She leaned against her papa's arm and he put his arm around her to better comfort her. 

"I want a chocolate after this." Anya said, a small smile appearing on her face as her papa seemed to be growing more worried by the moment. 

He seemed removed from the stress of the situation long enough to roll his eyes. His amused mood continued long enough for Anya to feel comfortable enough to try to relax back into a state of sleep. More a state of extreme relaxation, she couldn't bring herself to unconsciousness with the horrid smell of cigarettes in the air. If she didn't come out of the plane without a breathing condition she would be surprised. 

The plane touched down at 10:00 am, when Anya felt the plane come to a complete stop on the runway she grinned and clapped her hands in excitement. Finally she was going to be off the damned plane. She found herself being driven mad by the lack of contact with the flowers, they're comforting presence denied to her by the 18 hour flight. 

"Mäuschen," Her papa began as both of them began their departure from the plane. "Do your best to speak Spanish." 

Anya nodded taking her papa's offered hand as the two made their way to the baggage carousel. The crowded airport was loud and busy with many people from all across the globe speaking dozens of different languages, surrounded her. She did her best to watch for her bags, but she found her attention focusing more on overhearing the conversations of others. 

When their bags came around the carousel, her papa was quick to squeeze her hand to get her attention back to their bags. She said nothing and grabbed her small brown leather suitcase as her papa grabbed his own big brown suitcase. The two traveled down the main staircase towards the main carport, they'd catch a cab and head off to the hotel rented towards the outskirts of Buenos Aires. 

The plan was that she would remain in the hotel and enjoy Argentinian television while her father went out to sort out whatever business needed to be done. Perhaps this time around he would leave her with enough of a hint as to what he was doing to figure out what exactly his business was here in Argentina. With a pinch of fairy dust perhaps she could fly as well. 

As the two reached the bottom of the staircase, her papa was distracted by what looked to be a mother and her son talking. Anya ignored it, she was far too interested in looking at the beautiful Erythrina Cristo-Galli growing on what appeared to be a completely indoor tree. The beautiful red petals of the flower were a strike of color to the eyes of those in the airport. 

Her papa stopped walking as he looked towards the woman and her son talking once again. He seemed as if he were in a daze, taking off his sunglasses to look at the two as if he knew them well. Anya watched as his expression went from curiosity to something akin to longing. 

She had not seen him like this since the last, and only, time they were in Germany. He had this glossy look in his eyes as he stared at what appeared to be a normal store, and when he came out of it by Anya's impatience to get out of the cold, he had suddenly lashed out at her, telling her that she had to learn not to be such a brat and do as he said. The apology that came after was not received until they had crossed the border into the Netherlands. At the time Anya could only hope that they never returned to Germany again if it brought her papa that much pain. 

She knew he was German by birth, he had lived through the Third Reich even as a Jew. He had never quite elaborated on what it was that he had experienced, and from what she could remember from her mother she knew better to than to ask what had occurred. It was best that she remained ignorant to avoid another moment like that in Cologne. 

"Are you looking for someone?" A worker from the airport asked. 

Her papa seemed to come out of his strange daze at the man's interruption. He put his sunglasses back on and picked up the suitcase, taking a quick look to make sure Anya was still beside him, he looked at the man and simply said, "Aren't we all." 

Anya followed him swiftly as they made their way through the rest of the airport. Hailing a cab had been easier than Anya had ever experienced in Europe, the relative ease though was lost upon the girl as soon as she sat in the cab for nearly an hour in traffic. 

Upon arriving at the hotel the two swiftly checked in without much of a hitch. The hotel was beautiful, marble floors, at least two dozen floral arrangements of flowers that Anya had only ever read about. The multitude of people in the lobby prevented Anya from getting too close to inspect the flowers, but what she managed to she found herself more and more attached to them. The dahlias and the plumeria she found she adored the most. 

They had their own little calling to her, each seeming to say hello, not to warn her of anything just to welcome her. They were hotel flowers of course, they had to be courteous to all their costumers, especially the girl that could understand them. Her powers had given her the ability to speak to the flowers, as well as the ability to make them grow and even kill them if she wished to. She had only ever killed a daisy, a daisy that she thought was so ugly it deserved death, upon her wish the flower wilted, the petals fell off, and the stem dried up into a brown stub. 

The front desk gave her papa the room key while giving Anya a chocolate chip cookie. The woman at the front desk was especially kind to Anya, telling her about the pool and the slide that was just out the back door. She had smiled at the woman, if she was lucky she could go swimming before her papa packed them up and headed them to wherever next he needed to go. 

"Thank you," Anya said to the woman with a smile on her face. "I hope I can." 

"You will just have to be extra good for your papa." The woman smiled, her cheeks turning red as she looked back to her papa. "Enjoy your stay." 

The cookie was very good, nothing like she had ever had back in Europe, it tasted like they had mixed in honey with the recipe. She wasn't about to complain, it was one of the best things she'd had within the past 24 hours. Her hunger sated for now was well enough as she and her papa made their way to the hotel's main elevator to their room on the sixth floor. 

"I like this place." Anya said. "It's so pretty. And the flowers are just beautiful. And it's warm in the winter!" 

Her papa let out a small laugh at the girl. "The seasons are flipped here." He began. "In the Southern Hemisphere they have summer when we have winter. It will get just as cold as it does in Europe in a few months." 

"Well that's not fair." Anya said pressing the button for the sixth floor once inside the elevator. "Aren't there any places where it is warm all year long?" 

"Of course there are," Her papa said looking at his watch. "Those places don't have too many flowers though." 

Anya crossed her arms. She hated the cold, she wanted to live somewhere where it was warm all year long so she could keep her flowers safe from the frost and not get cold. She imagine herself living in a pretty house in field where she could just sit out on her porch any time of the year and have her flowers growing as beautiful as ever. Sadly that wasn't going to happen. 

The elevator doors opened on the sixth floor, shocking Anya as she was used to getting stopped on each floor in elevators to let people in. Maybe there weren't a lot of people checked into the hotel at the moment? No, they probably just liked to get huffy and out of breath here in Argentina by taking the stairs. 

"Room 622," Anya muttered as she and her papa made their way down the hallway towards their room. 

The hallways were not as ornate as the lobby had been, but not by much. The marble floors remained on the sixth floor, but were covered by rugs every few feet. Flowers in various bouquets were seen growing at every junction. It was beautiful really. 

Her papa found their room quick enough for Anya's liking, she felt as if her arm was going numb with carrying her suitcase around for so long. Room 622 was a charming, but simple, suite with one king sized bed, a tv, a balcony, and a bathroom. Anya immediately went to setting her bag down and making her way towards the balcony. 

With the sixth story view she could see not only the streets around her, but over some buildings. She saw an elderly man and his granddaughter buying an ice cream a block away. There were also many people traveling in and out of the hotel, some of them were dressed as if they were the richest people in Argentina. One woman she could tell was wearing a diamond necklace all the way up. 

The peaceful mid-day in Buenos Aires seemed to get better with each passing moment, the smells that came from the restaurant across the street reached up to the sixth floor and made Anya wish she could have an empanadas with chicken and maybe some french fries on the side? Oh that would be just heavenly. 

"I'll need to leave now if I hope to be back before dark." Her papa said as soon as Anya got back into the room. 

"Where are you going?" Anya asked not really thinking when she asked the question. 

"I'll be about an hour's drive from here." He said as he watched Anya sit down on the large bed to listen. "It shouldn't take but a few hours for me to get what I need." 

"Can we eat lunch first?" She asked giving him her best puppy-eyes. "I'm starving." 

Her papa just laughed at her. "Considering how sick you were just a few hours ago I don't think it's good for you to have anything more than a light meal." 

She huffed. If she continued like that perhaps she could persuade him to ignore his meeting and just go to the pool with her. That would be nice, she hadn't been swimming since there adventure in Czechoslovakia and what she'd do to get a chance to meet other kids her age for just an afternoon. Her wishful thinking wouldn't get her anywhere anyway. At least she had her imagination. 

Anya really didn't want to stay inside the room. She wanted to go out and maybe meet the people her papa was meeting. They had to be better than that Norwegian man that she had met years earlier. What would happen if she followed him? No, no bad idea. He'd probably drop her off at the nearest orphanage or home for wayward girls. She was not going to risk it. She'd rather be bored. 

"The Italian ice here is supposed to be better than in Italy." Her papa said sitting down on one of the office-looking chairs that they had placed in the hotel room. "We'll need to try that tonight." 

"Do they have gelato as well?" She asked taking her mind away from asking him if she could go. "I want strawberry ice if they don't." 

"Perhaps." He said looking at his watch once more. "I'll need to leave in a few minutes Mäuschen." 

Anya sighed. "Do you have to? Can't you just do it tomorrow?" 

"I'm sorry mäuschen," Her papa said getting up from his seat and went to sit next to her on the bed. "I wouldn't go if I didn't have to." 

"I know." Anya said leaning into the papa to be held. "I just don't want to stay in here all by myself all day." 

"I wouldn't if I didn't have to." Her papa repeated as he kissed her forehead. "I want to keep you safe, and safe is right here in this room." 

She didn't say anything more and just hugged her papa back. Within a few moments her papa looked at his watch again to discover it was past time for him to have left for his meeting wherever it was. She knew better than to say anything else as her papa told her to be careful. He placed his fedora on his head and put the sunglasses back on, before leaving her with a quick, "Be safe" before closing the door and locking it behind him. 

Anya found herself just looking at the off tv to know she was just going to have a lovely afternoon spent watching Argentinian tv and perhaps ordering a few desserts from downstairs? Yes, she'd definitely order desserts. 

February 20, 1962 

(5:30 pm) 

"And with that John Glenn becomes the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth." An American news announcer by the name of Walter Cronkite announced with a stern look ever present on his face. "John Glenn orbited the Earth for four hours, fifty-five minutes, and twenty-three seconds, and performed a total of three orbits." 

If Anya was more skeptical she would have said she didn't believe flight in space was even possible, but the amazement she felt at just the thought of one day traveling to the moon and back was like something out of a novel. Perhaps when was her papa's age she and her own family could go vacation on the moon and play mini-golf or something. It'd probably be really expensive, but she was willing to pay through the nose if it meant she could go to the moon. 

Maybe she could become an astronaut? No, she'd been born somewhere between Hungary and Ukraine, they'd never allow her to become an astronaut. Maybe if she returned to Ukraine she could get the chance to be a cosmonaut with the USSR? It would probably be harder there, but if she went back soon and went back to school and made top marks she could apply for the astrophysics program in Kiev, or Moscow. 

She doubted she could do it, but she was sure if she worked hard enough and kissed enough butts she could be on a flight to the moon before 1980. How old would she be by then? 30, that was the age of the average astronaut she thought. They have to be young and they have to have experience. She could get enough experience by then. 

The hotel room door opened shortly before To Tell The Truth could even get through the participates names. Her papa came in the room with his sunglasses off and fedora still on his head. He seemed to be a good mood judging by the way he immediately smiled upon entering the room instead of the grumpy look he usually came back from meetings with. Whatever it was it must have went very well. 

Her papa first put something into one of his suitcases before heading towards Anya and hugging her once again. She smiled. She could hardly wait to eat something, she'd eaten three empanadas filled with rice, chicken, and cheese, but they had barely lasted her an hour before she was hungry again. 

"What's for dinner?" Anya asked immediately upon her father's release of the hug. "I'm starving." 

He smiled. "Don't you want to know how my meeting went?" 

"Did you bring back food?" She asked. 

"No." 

"Then I don't care." Anya laughed at the sudden frown on her papa's face. 

"Well then," He said. "I suppose I will just have dinner alone." 

"No, no, no!" She giggled. "I care completely care about what happened at the meeting. I will listen to everything!"

He just laughed at her as she put her hands together in a prayer fashion to beg for food. She was easy to entertain sometimes, other times she was just as hardheaded her mother. He knew how to annoy her to no end and still get her laughing by the end of the little joke. 

"I'll call and order us something from downstairs." Her papa said as he went to the bedside table to get the menu. 

Anya already knew what she wanted, she wanted another helping of those empanadas. She'd also love a few more of the aflajors. They were nearly as good as those soft shortbread cookies she had eaten in Scotland, nearly being the key word. Now if only she could somehow steal the recipe for making them and every time they stayed in a place with a kitchen she'd make two dozen of the cookies. 

Her papa ordered both of them chicken and cheese empanadas with aflajors at Anya's insistence. He didn't bother asking if those were even a bit healthy, he just did as Anya told him to do. She smiled, when he was in a good mood she could about get him to do anything she wanted him to do. Now if only he could be in a good mood when she did something bad. 

"My meeting went well," Her papa began. "I've obtained valuable information that could led us back home. If everything goes well we could go back to Europe and never have to worry about anyone harming us again." 

She looked at him as if he'd gone crazy. She concluded quickly that he was finally going to tell her what it was they were after and why they could never stay in one place at a time. He said they could go back to Europe, live in peace for once, live in one place for more than a year. 

"What are you talking about?" Anya asked pretending that she didn't know already that what he had always described to her as "meetings" were not meetings at all. 

Her papa took a seat once more in the office-like chairs at the small table they had been provided in the room. He looked to be contemplating how exactly to tell her what he was doing. It couldn't be anything she could imagine, he could be a double agent for the Soviets for all she knew. That would actually be really cool. 

"I was born in Germany before the Nazi's came to power." He began. "Everything was fairly peaceful in my early childhood, my parents were both employed and hard workers. My parents were Jewish, I was as well, as are you." 

"I hardly know anything about it though." Anya argued. "I can't remember anything like passover or other holidays." 

"I will get to that." He said making a motion for her not to interrupt him again. "Before everything went completely to hell, my parents managed to smuggle us out of Germany and into Poland. We lived their happily for two years before Hitler invaded in September of 1939. My parents had hoped that just leaving Germany would save us from the persecution we had faced back home. They were wrong.

"When the Germans first came into Poland it was calm, not calm, I can't think of a better word." He sighed getting back to his point. "They identified those of Jewish faith, Romani culture, Poles, communists, homosexuals, the disabled, and any one else that did not fall in line with the Nazi doctrine. In March of 1940, we, along with half the Jewish population of Warsaw, were moved into ghettos. We made it through food shortages, disease, and countless roundups to send us to other ghettos or camps. April of 1944, my parents, myself, and the remaining population of the ghetto were extracted and transported to what we were told was a work camp..." 

"Holy shit." Anya mumbled under her breath. "You..." 

She felt bile rise into her throat. That burning sensation she felt before she would start crying began soon after. Her eyes were watering and her mouth was dry. Her throat was burning as she did her best to remain in a calm state. She should have known. She should have been able to figure out what he had been through before he could get this far in his explanation. 

She had known he had lived in Germany during the Third Reich, she should have been able to conclude that he ended up in the camps. If he had somehow avoided them her grandparents could very well be alive. They would live in West Germany and live a normal life, perhaps her mother would be with them still as well. The world was too cruel for that, and she had been a fool to believe otherwise. 

Anya closed her eyes and opened them back up as quickly as she could, a few tears fell down her cheeks. She had been foolish and now she was paying for it by making her papa live through it again. She should have known. 

"Don't say that word Anya." Her papa said with a smile appearing on his face. 

He held her face in his hands. He wiped away the tears that had already fallen. The smile on his face seemed to prove enough for her to smile back at him. His eyes were watery, Anya felt more tears fall down her face, she had caused her papa to cry. It was all her fault, she had been stupid and now she was making her papa sad. 

Her papa instead of scolding her simply held her tight to him as she cried into his shoulder. At that moment all she wanted to do was crawl into a ball and wish to be home. Wherever home was. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One step closer to us getting to the events of X-men First class. I can't wait. :) Read, review, like, comment, all that junk. Hope to see you soon! :)


	4. Chapter 4

April 13, 1962

Miami, Florida, USA

(3:00 pm) 

"So many boats." Anya commented as she pointed to another boat. "Queen Sassy, Mean Queen, and Queen of Tits!" 

She smiled as she did something that successfully got the other girls her age to laugh. The tour guide didn't seem to care that one of the young girls he had been charged with touring around the harbor had said. He was just hoping for it to all be over soon and get paid. The group was made up of twelve girls ranging in age from ten to fourteen, all of the girls had been signed up to tour the large harbor by their busy parents. 

Anya had been left with the group of girls after begging her papa to let her do something fun while he was out doing whatever it was that he was doing. She had decided after the talk in Argentina that she was going to keep her questions to a minimum. She was not going to have another moment of weakness and stupidity cause her papa to become upset.

"Can you believe there are people that actually live on those?" One girl with blonde hair asked pointing to the boat Flowing Free. 

"Wouldn't they get seasick?" Another asked. 

"I don't get seasick!" The youngest of the group responded with her hands waving in the air. "They don't either!" 

The girls began an argument over how one could possibly live on a boat and get seasick. Anya found herself on the side that said some people just don't get seasick, while the others argued that everyone gets seasick and the people that live on boats are just crazy. The tour guide seemed more amused than he had throughout the tour at the girls arguing about seasickness. A topic that would have their mother's in a twist if they were to discover their daughter's discussing something so unladylike. 

They came up at the boat The Queen of Tits with some of the girls giggling at the crude name, while the others just looked confused. The Queen of Tits wasn't a very big yacht compared to the rest of the harbor. It was a beautiful ship, and if Anya had the choice to go on board it she would. She could just imagine telling her papa that she had been onboard the Queen of Tits, he'd probably never let her do anything on her own again. 

"Come on girls," The tour guide instructed with a whistle. "You haven't even seen half and you only have an hour left." 

"I want to see that big one!" The youngest girl practically yelled pointing towards the other side of the harbor. 

The boat was huge from far away, Anya had to guess that boat had to be at least a hundred feet long, imagine the person who must own it! They had to have the prettiest jewels, the best food, and just imagine how pretty they were themselves! 

She gushed thinking about boarding the boat and just running through the halls looking for pretty dresses. She knew that whenever a man can afford a big boat like that, that they had a girlfriend or wife. It was because they wanted to be rich too that's why the were with them. It was common sense of course. 

"Hey look!" One of the girls with brown hair laughed. "The Titanic!" 

The girls made their way down the harbor within that hour, the Titanic and the Queen of Tits appearing to be the highlights of their tour. The fact that someone had named their boat Titanic was enough for Anya to wonder if they believed in bad luck or not. She didn't really believe in luck, but she did believe that they were just asking for something bad to happen to them. 

"We're at the big one!" The youngest girl rejoiced at seeing the big boat closer. "Wow, I bet they a swimming pool on it." 

They weren't allowed on the private docks for the boats but what they could see from the sandy path they had walked they could see the yacht as if it were close up. The Caspartina, it was beautiful, the girls were all giggling about something one of them had said, leaving Anya the only one paying attention to the last stop on their tour before they started the trek back. 

Anya could see there were people onboard, lounging around at the bow were at least five people. She could see a woman's shiny blonde hair from at least thirty yards away. The blonde woman had to be lucky to be onboard a ship like that, she was probably more beautiful than any film star Anya had ever seen. Maybe she was a film star? She found herself excited at the notion of being near a celebrity even when she thought herself silly for thinking this way. 

Don't move any further. The hibiscus flowers to her right whispered. 

She jumped upon hearing the flowers. She had found herself in a state of overwhelming bliss being surrounded by so many flowers upon arriving in Miami that she hadn't much found herself focusing on a single plant for very long. The Floridian flowers had remained uninterested in her up until she approached the ship. What was on board that had the flowers telling her to stay away? 

Take your friends and leave. They said this time with more force than what had been said earlier. 

Anya looked towards the ship, curiosity would be the death of her, but she wanted to know what was going on that would make the flowers want to warn her against it? She'd disobeyed the warnings of flowers before hadn't she? Yes, and some times their warning hadn't been needed because what they warned against didn't happen. 

Stay away! 

Turn around! 

Go home! Stay away! Anya turn around now! 

They are going to hurt you! 

We can't protect you! 

Doubting the flowers was not a wise decision. As the girls approached the ship Anya found herself being overwhelmed with the whispers and screams of the flowers surrounding her. Her head began to ache as she tried to ignore their warnings. Normally when she didn't want to hear them she could just shut them out, now they overrode her control. They wouldn't shut up! They wouldn't leave her alone. 

She didn't even notice when she walked far ahead of the group. She was so consumed in fighting off the flowers warnings that she didn't notice the attention she got from those onboard the boat she had admired earlier. The flowers, no longer shouting at her, surrounded her suddenly in the protective manner they often had done when she was in destress. 

Anya couldn't feel anything, nor hear anything as the many flowers around her shielded her. The magnetic pool of flowers towards the girl was noticed by the sunbathing occupants of the Caspartina. The curious group of The Hellfire Club were quick in collecting the flower-covered girl and bringing her onboard. 

She was shocked by the sudden light that flooded her face as the flower's that had shielded her were removed. The flowers were still speaking to her, their voices weakened with their roots being disconnected, they were dying, they always did when they assembled around her. Whenever they did this she would normally kill them out of mercy before they died. 

Anya moved her hands up to her eyes to block out the sun's harsh rays beaming down directly on her eyes. She found herself assuming her papa had found her when she had not been there and picked her up in her floral blanket and brought her back to their hotel room. 

"Papa close the curtains." She muttered as she began to sit up. 

When she removed her hands from her eyes, no longer needing to shield them from the sun, she found herself outside on the deck of a ship. Her heart dropped. Where was she? Where was her papa? Oh no, her papa was going to kill her when he found her. How could she have been so stupid as to not listen to the flowers, they had never lied to her before. They had over exaggerated situations before yes, but never had they lied about potentially dangerous situations. 

Whether it was her arrogance or her stupidity that had gotten her into the situation she really didn't need to argue it out in her mind. She was being looked at by the four occupants of the large boat the flower's had warned her about. Her anger at her own stupidity outweighed her fear of the strangers for that moment. 

She looked at them, the woman with the blonde hair she had seen earlier was now looking at her as if she was just as confused as Anya was as to how she had ended up here. The blonde woman was as beautiful as she had imagined, more beautiful than any film star she could think of. Turning her head she saw the other three occupants, a middle-aged man with a strange look on his face, a man with long brown hair, and the devil. 

The devil. The three other adults seemed as if having the devil in their company was perfectly normal. Maybe they weren't aware of his presence. Oh no, she had been bad. She had been bad and she had died. She was going to hell because she had not listened to the flowers. Oh god, she should have listened to the flowers. 

"I don't understand." The blonde woman said looking at the middle-aged man, still not noticing the devil. "I can't read her." 

Anya kept her attention on the devil. Her teeth chattering in fear, her throat constricting as she did her best not to show her fear before him. She had to be brave. Maybe if she was brave the devil would allow her to stay alive and allow her a second chance to obey the flowers commands. If only. 

The devil seemed to take notice at the young girl's staring, he tapped the shoulder of the middle-aged, normal man. The devil must have said something to get the middle-aged mans full attention because when she looked at the middle-aged man again he was coming closer to her. 

"What's your name sweetheart?" He said, spoken in a way to repress what she knew to be a German accent. 

She looked at him skeptically. Her papa had told her never to talk to anyone that he had not told her to before hand. She knew better than to disobey him, but perhaps he would not mind it in this moment to betray him to get back to him? If that's what it would take to get back to her papa she would just have to tell the strangers who she was and how she needed to go home. 

No, bad idea. Don't tell them anything but what they ask you to. Her papa had taught her well that when dealing with strangers to never trust them. But for some reason she found herself wanting to tell them everything to get back to her papa and the soft hotel room bed. Her papa would kill her for disobeying him, disobeying the flowers, and more importantly not staying with the harbor tour group. 

He was going to be so angry when she returned. She could just imagine now how many days she'd have to spend in her hotel room as punishment. She'd probably not be allowed to do anything on her own again until she was sixteen.

"Anya," She said looking at the confused blonde woman once more. "I need to get back to my papa." 

The middle-aged man laughed. He looked at her as if she were a more foolish child than she already felt. She knew well enough that she had been foolish, she didn't need some stranger rubbing it in. He should just leave that to her papa. 

"Why would you want to go back to someone who doesn't understand you, Anya?" He asked giving her this sympathetic look Anya knew very well was fake, she'd learned well from people watching with her papa while he talked with someone she really didn't want to be near. 

Her papa understood her well enough. She was a girl though, somethings she wished her mama was still with them to explain these things to her. He did his best when she asked questions, he'd even handed her a biology textbook when she asked about puberty. Anya about smiled at the memory of her papa just gifting her that book to her for her 11th birthday. 

"What?" She asked genuinely confused, her papa understood her, not entirely but he understood her. 

"Emma would you mind giving us a demonstration of our differences?" The middle-aged man asked with a smile and a wink towards the blonde woman. 

Emma, smiled back at him, she looked to be concentration on something when suddenly her body became like that of a crystal. She was like some sort of walking humanoid diamond. Anya found her even more beautiful in this form. Emma, she needed to remind herself, was a diamond. And here she was and could only influence flowers. 

They were like her and her papa. They had powers. Maybe one of them could do something with flowers? Or maybe one of them could bend metal like her papa? She could only imagine what the other three could do. The middle-aged man's power probably had something to do with creeping people out, while the devil's was scaring people. 

The diamond form of Emma was quickly replaced with the blonde haired version with hardly a moment's hesitation. She still looked at the girl skeptically but she had a comforting smile appear when the girl smiled back at her. 

"You see Anya," The middle-aged man began. "We are the next step in human evolution. The four of us have our own unique abilities, and so do you. You are the next step. You and your abilities will give your power over all men and nations. Anya, you must have known before today you were different?" 

Anya felt the need to keep her mouth shut, something about this man made her want to run screaming to her papa to protect her. She wanted more than anything in that moment to be off the ship, but these people, however, strange they might be, were probably her only way back to her papa. And she knew that if she had to tell them something to get back her papa might not mind. He probably would. 

This man before her, he scared her, she felt as if she lied to him he could unleash the fury of a hellhound upon her. But she couldn't give away anything that could harm her papa. Maybe her papa already knew these people? No, he couldn't he said he was sure that they were the only two people in the world with these strange abilities. He couldn't know these people if he thought they were alone in the world. 

Perhaps it was best if she didn't say anything at all to these people? And then how could she get back to her papa? 

"I knew I was different," Anya admitted. "But I knew I wasn't alone." 

Emma looked back to the middle-aged man with another confused and frustrated look on her face. 

"She's resistant to telepathy." Emma sighed crossing her arms. "She can make pretty floral arrangements and I can't read her mind. Impressive." 

"You can read minds?" Anya asked, not bothering to look at the middle-aged man if she didn't have to. 

"Yes," Emma said walking towards the bar behind them. "Though for some reason I can't read yours." 

"My papa says I'm hard-headed." Anya said an awkward smile appearing on her face.

Emma smile and the others seemed to be amused by the girl's nervous mannerisms. Anya kept her attention on Emma, for some reason she felt safe with the woman, for what reason she couldn't begin to understand. Perhaps it was because she was the one who couldn't read her mind and she'd found her weakness. 

"No sweetie," Emma laughed after making herself some sort of red cocktail. "I think it's a part of your power." 

"I can make flowers come to me," Anya said to Emma with a smile. "I can make them grow to full growth. I can turn them back into seeds. They shield me when I'm in trouble, though normally they warn me beforehand." 

"Can you use your powers on all plants?" The middle-aged man asked forcing her to look back at him. 

"No," She said. "Just flowering plants." 

"Have you ever tried?" 

"Of course, I have. The non-flowering plants I can't do anything with. I can't even speak to them." 

The middle-aged man seemed pleased with her answer, or at least she thought so with the way his strange smile seemed to grow more real as she discussed her powers. He seemed to be the type of person who was not interested in anything one had to say unless it involved him or something he liked. And in this situation he was very interested in discussing the strange powers she assumed he too possessed. 

"You practice using your abilities often then?" He asked seeming to make mental notes with each answer she gave him. 

"Yes," She said. "It's a lot more fun than just sitting in a hotel room watching tv all day." 

"Do your parents know about your powers?" The man asked. 

Anya contemplated her answer for a few moments. She knew well enough to not to mention her mother's absence. Mentioning that would be like telling someone her father was dating a crossdresser. She had to lie, but could she get away with it? This man would know. Maybe she should just change around a few things and then she wouldn't be lying. 

"Of course," Anya began. "My papa has his own abilities. He doesn't use them as much as I do. His power's aren't as interesting as talking to flowers." 

"Your father has powers?" The man asked in shock it would seem. 

Maybe she had said too much. She had said too much, she should have just said her papa was open with her using her powers because he thought it was pretty. Now they were going to ask her more questions while all she wanted to do was go back to the hotel. 

The man lead her to take a seat on couch-like seat at the front of the bow to sit down on. She did as she was told to do, even if it meant passing the devil and being farther away from Emma. She didn't want the middle-aged man getting mad at her. 

"Yes," Anya said, not truly sure if she shut her mouth or not. 

"What can he do?" He asked looking to the others for them to join him as the youngest yachter would explain. 

She bit her lip. She wished at that moment she hadn't cut her hair to her chin, she needed something to play with. To distract her from telling him anything that might get her or her papa into trouble. She was sure her papa could handle it but if she could she would avoid it at all cost. She just needed to get back to her hotel room, maybe by telling this man what her papa could do he'd take her back to him? She doubted it truly, but it was worth a shot. 

"He can control metal." Anya said looking away as soon as the shocked look on the man's face appeared. 

"Der kleine Erik Lehnsherr." The man laughed finally moving away from her, his face alit with a psychotic smile. 

The man just kept laughing looking back at the girl every once in a while, the devil and the man with long-hair looking at the man as if he'd lost his marbles, while Emma just nodded. They were talking through their minds. Anya sat back into the couch trying to make herself as small as possible, she had made a mistake and now he was going to hurt her. He knew her papa, she didn't know how, but he knew him and by the way the man talked he was one of the men who were not too kind to him in the past. 

She didn't dare say anything as the man stalked back over to her, sat in front of her on the glass coffee table. "Der kleine Erik lief weg mit dem Zigeunermädchen und nun das kleine Mädchen, die ich gestoßen bin ist seine Totter. Wie stehen die Chancen?" He said as if he were telling some fairytale. "The little Erik ran away with the gypsy girl and now this little girl I've encountered is his daughter. What are the odds?"

Anya knew now more than ever to keep her mouth shut. Her fear and confusion was mounting on top of the strange man's telling. He spoke of her papa as if he were some sort of story character he wrote about in a creepy notebook. She wanted to sink into herself, the flowers seemed to be angry with her and were not telling her anything, even in the stress she was in. 

"I do not think she understands." The devil finally spoke, his voice accented with an Eastern European language probably Russian. 

"Woher wissen Sie, mein Papa?" Anya said in German to quell the devil's fears of her not understanding. "How do you know my papa?" 

"He didn't tell you?" He asked, the look on Anya's face giving him all the answer. "I know your father very well Anya and I wonder how similar you are to him?" 

His smile turned into a stoic look of indifference towards the girl. He approached her quickly, leaning close into her face. "I wonder if you respond the same to pain?" 

Anya's wide eyes only reflected what the mad man probably already thought. Her voice never came to her as all she wanted to do was cry for her papa to save her, tell him that she was so sorry for not listening to the flowers, not staying with the group. She'd stay inside every hotel room until the day she turned 18 if her papa just came for her now. The tears that began to form in her eyes made it all the more difficult not to scream. 

The next three hours were filled with nothing but the mad man taunting her, filling her head with ideas of torture. She felt as though she were going to explode. She had refused to let the tears fall, she did not want to give the mad man a chance to see her at her weakest. She wanted him to see that she was strong, stronger than her papa, she would not cry. The pain she felt in her throat and chest only added to the struggles not to let the tears fall. 

The devil was kind enough to tell the mad man to stop pestering the little girl. Anya felt like racing to the devil and thanking him in every way she could for preventing the man from raising a hand to her or worse. She wanted to hug the red, scary man. She wanted him to take her to her papa, but she knew that he was under orders not to bother with it. Her papa had said men under orders have no mind of their own, they blindly follow and make up any excuse as to why they did it to following orders. 

Emma seemed to be kind to her as well, as the mad man went to get a class of bourbon, she took a seat beside the girl. Anya nearly hugged the diamond woman with all her might. With Emma she knew she would not be harmed. Emma was cruel, Anya knew that already by her disgust with her fellow club members, but she wasn't so cruel as to not wish to protect a young girl that seemed to admire her. 

The sun had set, the lights of the boat were still ablaze as Anya looked towards the devil once more. He was checking their surroundings with a pair of binoculars, his scan alerted him to a large vessel moving towards them from starboard side. Anya hoped her papa was on that boat, that he had stolen a large ship just to frighten them into surrendering her over to him. She smiled at the thought. 

Emma jumped up from her seat quickly facing the stern of the boat instead of the starboard side. The mad man took notice as Emma seemed to peer through the walls of the ship. Anya felt herself tense up, if these people were scared imagine what destructive force had arrived onboard their yacht. 

"Herr Doktor, Ich glaube, Sie etwas, das mir gehört haben." The ever familiar voice of her papa rang out. "Doctor, I think you have something that belongs to me." 

"Papa!" Anya about cried in relief. 

"He's come here to kill you." Emma said, suddenly taking particular interest in her papa. 

As soon as Emma gave her papa a strange, concentrated look he was screaming in pain. Anya wasn't held back from running up to him as he lay there clutching his head and screaming. She started crying and watched as Emma released her hold on his mind, long enough for her papa to throw a dagger aimed straight at the mad man's head. 

The knife did not take it's target, instead was caught by the diamond form of Emma. Emma looked at Anya with a look of sympathy as she kicked her papa off the boat and into the water. The mad man laughed as her papa landed in the cold water. She found herself suddenly being thrown overboard with him by Emma. 

As she looked up from her place in the water she saw Emma give her a little smile before going back to concentrate on her own work. Anya didn't have time to thank her, she only had time to stare back. She quickly began swimming towards her papa. How she hoped she'd never come across that mad man again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Sebastian Shaw knows about Anya because 12 year olds. Dun, dun, dun... Anyway fun chapter to write, there is a boat called the Queen of Tits, I saw it a few years back in Hilton Head Island harbor, it was hilarious. Name your boat that and I will hug you so hard while laughing. I wasn't going to have Anya escaping but I thought you know I like the character Emma Frost, she's the classic femme fatale, let's at least show that she cares and have her throw a kid off a boat.


	5. Chapter 5

April 13, 1962 

(9:30 pm) 

"Papa!" Anya practically screamed as she did her best to keep her head above the water. "Papa! Help me!" 

She saw her papa reach out with open hands to take the anchor of the ship and tear it into the ship, cutting it in half. The Hellfire Club aboard the ship were gone by the time Anya got her bearings to look again at the now sinking ship. They must have fallen below when the anchor tore at the ship or the devil had managed to save them by taking them to hell. 

Anya continued swimming, her papa was within a few feet of her, she was nearly there. The water was so cold, even for Miami it was cold, but she endeared. Her papa had noticed something that she had not, by the time Anya was within inches of her papa he sank beneath the salty water. Her panicked state was made worse when he did not come back up. 

The metal, nuclear submarine that Anya had not yet noticed was quickly escaping the Miami port and heading out to sea. Her papa holding a tight grip on the metal of the sub, not giving up as he nearly drowned himself with the effort of holding back the sub from escaping. His anger was not enough to keep the sub in place and was going to drown before fulfilling his goal of revenge. 

Anya just treaded in the water as best she could, her teeth chattering as her body temperature dropped with the increasingly cold water washing over her head. She kept looking out into the port as best she could with the darkness. The darkness was interrupted however, by the spotlight that shone from a larger ship. 

She looked at the place the spotlight was directed at, an area of water choppy with the effort of the man trying to keep the submarine within the harbor. Anya looked back at the ship as a man, a crazy man, jumped into the water and swam towards the spotlight. The crazy man appeared to be taking a deep breath before submerging himself in the water.

The crazy man resurfaced soon after going under with another man, her papa. The two kept treading in the choppy water as the large ship got closer to two in the water. Anya looked back at the shore, it was closer than swimming all the way out to the boat. She knew it was best to stay in one place when lost, but at this time she felt she were going to freeze. She felt it best to just stay in the water. 

As the large boat got closer she realized it was an American naval ship, it stopped a few yards from her, they shone the spotlight on her, she covered her eyes with her hand as the bright light hurt her eyes. Keeping her head down away from the light she looked forward as a rope ladder descended from the ship. Shivering, but able to climb, she managed her way up onto the ship. 

"Anya!" Her papa sighed in relief as he wrapped his arms around the shivering girl. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I should never have let you out of my sight. I'm never letting you out of my sight again." 

Anya said nothing she held to her papa as if her life depended upon it. She was cold, she was somewhere she didn't know, and on top of that she had nearly been kidnapped. She now realized that crazy man that knew her papa was planning on taking her, for what reason she could only imagine because it would hurt papa. Her worst nightmares were nothing compared to what her papa had already imagined. 

Her papa let her go long enough for a crew member of the ship to hand him a towel for Anya. He began to pat the girl down, hoping that they'd be able to find her something warm until they dropped them off at their hotel. Anya just stayed as close as she could, she didn't want to have her papa anywhere where she couldn't see him. 

"Erik," The crazy man who had jumped into the water called. "Inside you and your daughter can get warm." 

The man's calm demeanor had her off as she had only seen the stranger jump off of big boats after strange men. He seemed nice enough, though she could easily see he was as confused with her as she was with him. Anya did her best to ignore him and focus on her papa as they were lead into a dormitory area for some of the sailors. 

"What's your name sweetie?" A young woman asked, her friendliness shining out above the crazy man's strange looks. 

"Anya," She said looking back to her papa as he began to drown her in towels. 

"I'm Raven," The blonde haired girl said with a smile once again striking her face, pointing to the crazy man behind her. "And that idiot is my brother, Charles." 

"Is he as crazy as my papa?" Anya asked, deciding beside her better judgement to joke about the serious situation. 

Raven hardly seemed fazed by her comment, as she just laughed and looked towards her brother for a moment then turned back to her. "More so than any man you'll ever meet." She said with a giggle. 

The rest of the journey to a naval base near Miami was filled with her papa and Charles exchanging various looks. Charles occasionally looking at her as if she were some sort of unusual species they had pulled out of the water instead of a twelve year old girl. Raven had said he was crazy and Anya was inclined to believe the kind and fun young woman. 

At the dock, Charles, Raven, and two members of the CIA walked them down the ships ramp and onto the dock. Anya held tight to her papa's hand as Charles began to explain to them that they were there because of the evil man's, Shaw's, actions towards advancing to another World War. Not everything, Anya didn't want to hear anything about how the US and the USSR were planning on nuking the other out of existence as well as humanity as a whole. 

She never did understand the politics behind this Cold War between the two superpowers. Her papa had tried to explain it to her as two countries with too big egos to let the other exist, but she saw it more as old men wanting to end the world. That was what it was about anyway, seeing who made the first move, a game of chess that could only lead to the deaths of millions. 

"We are going to drop both of you off at your hotel," Charles said once his speech about the chance of Nuclear War was over. "In the morning, with your things packed, we will be leaving for DC." 

"Why?" Anya asked. 

"You both have information pertaining to a known terrorist and it is key that we get whatever it is to the government before anything happens." The female CIA agent said, obviously toning down the seriousness of the situation to deal with a 12 year old. 

Anya did not say anything in reply, it was best that she ask her papa in the hotel room later what they were doing. Hopefully it involved going back to Europe and leaving the chase for Shaw behind them forever. She just wanted to lie down in her own bedroom, papa would buy a house and she'd have her own bedroom, not a hotel room, a real bedroom with movie posters and magazine cut-outs pasted to the walls. What'd she do to get a room like she had read about in the magazines. 

She doubted highly that with their, more like her papa's, knowledge of Shaw would keep them in the US until either side of the cold war won. How long would that take? She doubted it would end before she was 80. 

Arriving back in their hotel room, Anya immediately undressed and took a hot shower to revitalize herself. Afterwards, she pulled on her long sleep pants and shirt to sleep in. She was going to go to bed and dream of what she wanted to tonight. She was not going to dream of the devil or the crazy Shaw man that had wanted her hurt because she was her papa's daughter. She resigned herself to having a happy dream tonight. 

Before she succumbed to the dreams that she hoped would bring her peace her papa got into bed beside her. He kissed her forehead, doing his best not to disturb what he thought was his sleeping daughter. He sniffed, he was crying, or he had been crying. She knew very well why, she had been stupid. She should have listened to the flowers and now here she was pretending to be asleep whilst her papa cried his eyes out over the near loss of his daughter. 

Anya knew very well that he would never blame her, he would tell her her actions were stupid, but he'd blame himself for letting her out of his sight in the first place. He'd never let her leave his side again, and now with the CIA wanting him, she doubted she'd be allowed to breath without his permission. 

"Es tut mir leid." Her papa whispered. "I am sorry." 

She continued pretending, her desire for sleep was now being overwhelmed with her need to reassure her papa that she was never going to go anywhere without him ever again. It was better for her to be quiet now, he didn't like it when she saw him cry. This had been the first time she'd seen, rather heard, her papa cry in over a year. That time it had been over what he had thought was her mama in Budapest, she had known very well that that woman had not been her mama, even with her memories of her mother fading as time past, she knew she was not her mama. 

Her mama, where ever she was, Anya could only hope she was happy. She longed to have her mama with her now, perhaps with her mama her papa would not be searching the world for that mad man from the boat? She could only imagine. 

April 14, 1962 

(7:30 am) 

"Why did we have to get up so early?" Raven whined as she, Charles, Anya, and her papa gave their things over the plane's staff to put away. "And why are we not taking the fancy CIA jet we came here in." 

Anya was not looking forward to another flight. The flight from Argentina to Miami had been fine, but she worried it was just a luck that had her not get sick on the last flight. At least with this flight it would not nearly be as long as the one from Geneva to Buenos Aires, or at least that was what she hoped. For all she knew the CIA had some sort of fancy base in the middle of nowhere for them to meet at after landing. 

Her papa squeezed her hand in a method of comfort for the nervous young girl. She smiled slightly up at her papa, but he wasn't looking back down at her, instead her was focused on Charles still eyeing Anya as if she was some sort of creature from the sixth dimension. She was sure as a telepath Charles would be able to see that she was a gifted individual like he, his sister, and her papa. Perhaps he was just confused with the idea of a young girl with the abilities she held. 

Charles looked away from Anya long enough to just motion for Raven to just get into the plane before he lost his patience completely. She and her papa followed behind Raven into the small cabin, the jet they were currently boarding was like that of a private jet, though larger and with the added CIA presence. 

The main cabin area was just leather seats with no seatbelt included on any of them. Each of the leather chairs was next to a window and was facing towards another chair. The whole place looked like a woman in her mid-50s had designed it really, the smell of lysol was the only thing that was missing from the cabin. 

Anya took the seat Raven lead her towards, Raven took the seat in front of her to have a chance to talk to her throughout the flight. She seemed friendly enough, though Anya had been taught well enough not to trust someone completely... and she was contradicting herself by just mentioning it. She had wanted to put her trust into that pretty blonde woman, Emma, and boy had she been wrong to do that. 

"Do you think your papa will mind if I sit with you?" Raven asked with a large smile appearing on her face as she straightened out her skirt. 

"Probably." Anya laughed. "I don't think he'll much mind if I'm happy." 

Raven smiled and looked back towards Charles and her papa, the two of them were in the middle of having a brief conversation on the location they were headed towards. From what Anya could hear they were going to D.C. where they were going to help the CIA track down the evil man from the night before. 

"So what can you do?" Raven asked cheerfully looking Anya up and down as if she could grow a second head. 

Anya looked around the cabin for any presence of floral life, knowing her neglect from the previous afternoon the flowers would want nothing to do with her after ignoring their warnings. She could only hope they would forgive her if they were. Thankfully she found the presence of flowers in the vase towards the front of the cabin where the pilots were. They didn't know about what had happened yesterday of course, they had not been there and had no other flowers to tell them they should ignore her. 

These flowers were again very courteous as the hotel flowers were back in Argentina and in Miami, they held the same air about them as the flight attendants that Anya had briefly met during her sickening flights. They were red roses, lovely and friendly, they gave the leather smelling cabin a light air of sweetness badly needed in Anya's opinion. She was just hopeful no one started smoking. 

The plane took off as she called to the flowers from her seat a few feet away from her. They came to her with a quick fury of questions on how to make her flight more enjoyable. She smiled as she had the flowers weave into a crown for Raven's blonde hair. The floral crown of roses was placed onto Raven's head with little effort.

Anya smiled when she say the look on Raven's face with the flowers now sitting upon her head. She looked like a little girl to Anya, a happy little girl given a gift from a close friend on the playground. She was just happy to have helped. Her gift was something of beauty to Anya, it was helpful in warning her yes, but it was truly beautiful, being able to manipulate flowers to do as she willed. She could make red roses white if she so desired, make tulips bloom in the middle of winter, and kill the foul smelling orchids before they reached her nose. 

"Wow." Raven said pulling the crown off her head to inspect it. "Flower powers! Charles look at what Anya made!" 

Charles, engrossed in conversation with her papa, looked towards the two girls down the way from them. Her papa looking a bit concerned by his daughter's open display of her abilities. He had not told her she was not supposed to use them around them, so why would he be upset with her making her own decisions on this matter. Besides, Charles and Raven had powers just like them, whatever powers Raven possessed were still a mystery but she'd do it when she felt like it. 

"Your daughter is a mutant as well?" Charles asked not giving a second glance to her, instead focusing on his conversation with her papa. "That explains why I am unable to see into her mind." 

"Why would you want to look in my daughter's head?" Her papa asked his fist clenching around something in his palm. 

"I'm just remarking on how unusual it is that your daughter is able to manipulate floral arrangements and block out the powers of a telepath." Charles said as if he were somehow unconnected with the situation. 

"Emma said the same thing." Anya remarked looking down at her lap. 

"Emma?" Raven asked looking just as confused as her papa. 

"She was the lady in white with the diamond form." Anya said looking anywhere but at her papa. "She attacked papa and threw me off the boat." 

She knew very well how upset her papa was before the sound of the plane beginning to crush itself started. She kept her head down as best she could while her papa was talked out of destroying the plane and all of them that were inside by Charles. Perhaps it was for the best that she just kept her mouth shut for the rest of the journey? No, Raven was far too naive to stop talking to her. 

The plane's alarms finally were turned off as her papa calmed down at the ease of Charles telling him that Anya was with them now and she was perfectly safe. She looked up from her submissive position and back towards her papa, he wasn't looking at her, instead he was focused on Charles reassuring him that everything was all right. It seemed strange, but Anya felt that Charles was acting like a mother to her papa even if her papa was older than him. 

Anya focused her attention back on the flower crown that was now sitting on the floor of the plane's cabin. She quickly untied the flowers from each other and put the roses back with the others in the vase. With a quick smile she made sure they were still doing fine having spent so long without water. They were of course very happy to be back in their vase, but were willing to do whatever she told them to to keep her a happy passenger. 

"She was the telepath that blocked out my view of what happened aboard that ship." Charles remarked looking towards Raven and Anya. "It's really fascinating how soon we found fellow mutants. Raven and I knew there were more of us out there but to think we would come across six within a period of twenty-four hours is just amazing." 

Anya got up from her seat in front of Raven and went to sit with her papa. She could already sense her papa was going to start an argument with Charles. She was welcomed to sit on the arm rest of her papa's chair as she looked towards Charles with a stare of warning. If he was foolish enough to continue along that train of thought he was going to enjoy a loud argument. 

"Fascinating?" Her papa said with a false grin appearing on his face. 

"Yes," Charles said taking the bait her papa had set out for the foolish young man. "It's truly fascinating. Imagine how many more mutants are out there." 

Her papa opened his mouth to respond in a way that Anya was sure would get them kicked off the plane as soon as they landed. They'd probably be handed into federal custody if he dared to speak what he was thinking. She immediately interrupted with, "Papa I don't feel good." 

His attention quickly went from Charles to Anya, just as she had hoped. In truth she was feeling slightly ill traveling in the air once more, but she would be willing to put on a big show if it meant avoiding an argument that could result in the downing of the plane. Her papa pulled her into his lap where her forehead was checked for fever and his arms holding her protectively against him. 

"Why don't you hold me like hold me like that?" Raven asked taking a seat on her brother's chairs arm rest. 

Anya looked over towards the brother and sister. They seemed friendly enough around each other, though she could tell there was some tension between the pair.

"Because you're my sister." Charles remarked with a scuff. "Besides, you're not nearly as cute." 

Raven just smiled and morphed into a younger looking version of herself. Anya let out a shocked sound as the twenty-something Raven suddenly became a ten year old Raven. Her papa looked as shocked as Anya by the girl's transformation, her mutation must be appearance change. Anya watched as Charles just rolled his eyes as his sister hoped up into his lap a now child sister. 

"Now am I cute enough?" Raven said in a voice that was definitely hers but had not been truly hers since before puberty. 

Anya continued to look dumbfounded as the brother and sister began their little friendly banter back and forth. She was confused as to how the same thing that made her control flowers and her father control metal could give someone the ability to transform into anything. She needed to remember to pay attention to the television next time something of scientific was mentioned. Well, she doubted the television would hold any information regarding mutants. 

"My sister possess the ability to transfigure her form at will." Charles explained to the confused looking father-daughter pair. "Raven can you demonstrate?" 

Raven smiled in her ten year old form as she quickly transformed herself into Charles. Anya couldn't help but appear dumbfounded by the two Charles' sitting before her, one was obviously not like the other, one held the disposition of a playful young woman and the other a more studious man. Raven quickly manifested herself back into her true blonde haired twenty-something year old form. 

"Can you read minds when you are in that form?" Her papa asked quickly wiping the shocked look of his face. 

"No," Raven said. "I can just mimic appearance and voice." 

"You could really be Audrey Hepburn and nobody would know?" Anya remarked with a wide smile on her face appearing as Raven transformed herself into Anya' favorite actress. "So cool!" 

Anya looked back to her papa as Raven went back to her natural form. He seemed more than amazed at the young woman's mutation, more so than he was with Charles being able to read minds. It was likely because Charles posed the greatest threat to Anya and himself. Even if he said he could not read her mind he could easily being lying. 

She found herself wanting to test it out by insulting him within her mind throughout the rest of the flight. If he were lying she'd see him turn his head towards her, or maybe he'd just ignore her because she was being an annoying little girl. Her curiosity was not about to get the better of her though, especially after what had happened the day before. 

"We've begun our descent." The pilot said over the intercom system. "Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelt." 

She went back to her seat with Raven, buckled in and waited for the plane to touch down in wherever it was they were landing.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! :)


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